Govt has received complaints of corruption and pilferage in NREGS; teams will be sent to all states to verify the work done and evaluate the scheme’s impact.

NEW DELHI: The NDA government, uncomfortable with the UPA’s flagship rural employment guarantee scheme, has ordered a nationwide review of the Rs 35,000 crore programme to see if it meets the objectives of generating jobs and creating durable assets. The government has received complaints of corruption and pilfering of funds even after an electronic funds management system and biometric authentication of workers were put in place for disbursal of payments to workers. In several cases, states used machines instead of hiring workers. Besides, only 28 per cent of the payments were made on time to workers during 2014-15.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is aimed at ensuring 100 days of employment in a financial year to adult members of a rural household who volunteer to do unskilled manual work.

To take stock of the on-ground situation, the government has decided to send teams to all states to verify the work done, a senior rural development ministry official said. It has already taken note of a large number of incomplete works and lack of awareness among many households regarding their entitlements.

These teams of four officials each will visit the gram panchayats, talk to the local people and evaluate the impact of the National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (NREGS) and other rural development projects. The first phase of the exercise will be carried out in 76 districts across all states and Union Territories. "The advantages of NREGS have not reached the poorest. And the programme has never been in the good books of NDA…We need better monitoring at this point instead of completely scrapping the scheme," said Amitabh Kundu, a senior fellow with the Delhi Policy Group. States will be pulled up where lapses are found in implementation of the programmes which, apart from NREGS, include Indira Awaas Yojna, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna and Grameen Kaushalya Yojna.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been critical of NREGS, calling it a living example of six decades of failure of the Congress party. "It has to pay people to dig ditches," Modi had said in an address in Parliament in February.

Although the NDA government has taken steps to overhaul the scheme, it is yet to see results. Already under criticism from the opposition about not doing enough for rural India, the Modi government wants to ensure that its social sector schemes don’t just remain on paper. It is pushing the financial inclusion plan of Jan Dhan Yojna primarily meant for the poor, while also converging other schemes including Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna and Swachch Bharat Mission with NREGS. The strategy for rural development is also being realigned after the social and economic caste census showed that a third of the rural households is landless and depends on manual labour for income. The need to monitor developmental schemes is crucial because the onus of converging and implementing all programmes lies with the state governments. "Common mission reviews have been done for the health and education sector schemes. It is important that we set some national-level monitors for rural development as well," a senior government official said. States will be held accountable for putting in place checks and balances for timely measurement of work, closure of payments, spreading public information and creation of a system of technical supervision.